the value which was attached to them by our predecessors. The Dutch, on
the conquest of Ceylon in the seventeenth century, seized the official
accounts and papers of the Portuguese; and a memoir is preserved by
VALENTYN, in which the Governor, Van Goens, on handing over the command
to his successor in 1663, enjoins on him the study of these important
documents, and expresses anxiety for their careful preservation.[1]

[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, _Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien_, &c., ch. xiii. p.
174.]

The British, on the capture of Colombo in 1796, were equally solicitous
to obtain possession of the records of the Dutch Government. By Art.
XIV. of the capitulation they were required to be "faithfully delivered
over;" and, by Art. XI., all "surveys of the island and its coasts" were
required to be surrendered to the captors.[1] But, strange to say,
almost the whole of these interesting and important papers appear to
have been lost; not a trace of the Portuguese records, so far as I could
discover, remains at Colombo; and if any vestige of those of the Dutch
be still extant, they have probably become illegible from decay and the
ravages of the white ants.[2]

[Footnote 1: Amongst a valuable collection of documents presented to the
Royal Asiatic Society of London, by the late Sir Alexander Johnston,
formerly Chief Justice of Ceylon, there is a volume of Dutch surveys of
the Island, containing important maps of the coast and its harbours, and
plans of the great works for irrigation in the northern and eastern
provinces.]

[Footnote 2: _Note to the second edition_.--Since the first edition was
published, I have been told by a late officer of the Ceylon Government,